I’m a pretty calm and collected person. I confess, however,
that there are a few things that provoke the raging feminist in me. Of course,
these triggers are unexpected and typically cause a burst of shock or outrage
that really has no constructive outlet and then gets mopped up by the reality
of the human condition.
Last week I expressed my annual concerns over teen
milestones and celebrations that may involve drinking: proms and
graduations. This week it is
the new wave of “dance” that has trickled from urban dance halls to high school
proms. It’s called “daggering.”
Hmmm. What does that word conjure up for you?
Kinda of hard to pair daggering with dance unless you might
be an opera fan. My guess is that the word dagger may elicit, let’s say, the
notion of violence. In fact, the
trend of daggering stems from Jamaica – where the pelvic-wielding motion of
this dance – has been a popular trend. The music has also been
banned. It is basically mock sex
with a rough edge. One might think
of rape when watching any of the YouTube postings (a search you will regret).
It’s not that sexualized dance hasn’t appeared on dance floors in the past, of
course. Rather, it is that this
form of dance seems to have taken on a right of passage, “I’m hot, your not,” group-think
mentality among teens.
According to a description in the Boston Globe, Against the
Grind, by L. Harmon, “Acrobatic forms of daggering add an element of physical
danger, such as diving from a foot ladder onto a woman who is splayed on the
ground. Daggering isn’t suggestive.
It’s rough, artless, simulated sex on a dance floor.”
The double edge here is that it is girls who are participating
in order to belong. One girl in
the Globe article was quoted: “It requires no skill…. The girl doesn’t do
anything but bend over.” And some
girls – thankfully – are protesting.
One urban high school initiated an educational seminar and
had students sign a pledge to refrain from sexually explicit dancing as a
requirement to attend prom. Gosh, what it must be like to be a teen! Pledging this and that – no drinking
and driving and dance. It makes those virginity pledges – by teenagers who
promise to be sexually abstinent and later deny that they took the pledge –
seem rather quaint and charming.
Of course, the real concern is safety and how daggering is
translated off the dance floor. Daggering
clearly represents male sexual domination over women.
I’m really not a prude. I love dance. Cultures all over the world use dance as a
form of self-expression and covey the traditions and values of many peoples.
And the variety! Think Irish step dancing to royal promenades to African rites
of passage and American Indian rain dances. Dances tell a story.
Dance researchers suggest that humans are vocal learners –
that our brains are uniquely wired to tap into a beat which results in movement and motion. It’s
ancient and primal.
Dance also is used to express courtship and mating rituals. Some
early cultures had rather crude fertility rituals, including sacrificing a
budding adolescents to the fertility gods.
Apparently, dancing fosters the selection of partners who
will extend the gene pool – the strong, efficient, and productive. Research
shows that people are attracted to bodies that are symmetrical. Both sexes are captivated by those with
balanced physiques. (The two-left
footers are in some peril.) This is in line with research on beauty and attractiveness,
too. Mating is about survival of
the fittest.
But daggering has resulted in certain consequences: penile
fractures, for one. Can you (guys) imagine that? Surely, that will kill this dance trend sooner or later.
Can’t disrupt the flow of future danclings, can we? But why let it go that far.
Girls, stand your ground.
Resource:
SF Dingfelder. (April 2010) Dance dance evolution. APA Monitor (Vol. 41, No.4)
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